On December 5th, 771, Charlemagne [1] became the sole King of the Franks after the death of his brother Carloman. Geneticists have estimated that the majority of modern Europeans and Americans of European descent are distantly related to Charlemagne [2], who fathered 18 children.
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And on December 5th, 1964, the first Medal of Honor awarded to a serviceman for action in Vietnam was presented to Captain Roger Donlon of Saugerties, New York. Captain Donlon and his Special Forces team were manning Camp Nam Dong, a mountain outpost near the borders of Laos and North Vietnam.
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Today’s feature piece is a brief history lesson from Senior Editor James Wesley, Rawles, (JWR).
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We now need entries for Round 122 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest [3]. More than $978,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. Round 122 ends on January 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail [4] us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics [5]. Please refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic.